


Mele Kalikimaka

by stephmcx



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angsty Schmoop, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Music, Clara Williams - Freeform, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, M/M, Songfic, Tim Cole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21877705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephmcx/pseuds/stephmcx
Summary: Three times it’s Bing Crosby playing on the radio. Three different situations, three different people and the emotional impact the song “Mele Kalikimaka” has on them.Or: Steve realizes what he's lost, Danny has an epiphany and Grace misses home.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 42
Kudos: 170





	1. Steve

**Author's Note:**

> Yes. I started another Christmas fic. But I heard the song "Mele Kalikimaka" recently and of course I thought of Steve and Danny immediately. And I started wondering what the song might mean to each of them. This is what I came up with.

**Afghanistan, 2003**

They finish the job on Christmas Eve and return to base early on Christmas morning. It takes Steve completely by surprise when one of the guys mentions the date—he hadn’t given it any thought. But it’s not that Christmas has held any importance in his life ever since he left home. He knows that for most guys the holidays are the hardest time of their tours, but Steve hasn’t been home for Christmas or spent the holidays with his family—or what’s left of it—for 10 years. He hadn’t expected it to be any different this year or any time soon. So he just nods in acknowledgement and shrugs it off.

Their convoy passes the checkpoint and makes its way through the camp towards the motor pool. Once the vehicles have stopped, the team disembarks quickly and silently. They’ve spent all night on the road and have been awake much longer; they are all exhausted and hoping to catch a moment or two of sleep before the inevitable marathon of debriefings starts.

Steve is tired to a point where everything seems too sharp. The sunlight too bright, the wind too cold, the noises around them too loud. Maybe that’s why the music that is broadcast over the camp’s speaker system seems louder than it should be, too. No, he thinks, that’s wrong, there shouldn’t be any music playing at all. Then it clicks—it’s Christmas songs! 

He shakes his head in disbelief, pulls his scarf up a little higher against the wind and picks up his gear. He squints to see if Freddie is ready and when he’s right beside Steve, they start walking towards their quarters. On their way Steve can’t help but notice that the camp is scattered with improvised Christmas decorations, there are Santa hats and stockings and garlands on every imaginable surface. He briefly wonders who bothers with putting them up, doesn’t that make it worse when you’re homesick already?

“Look at that,” Freddie says and points towards one of the armored vehicles that is parked a little to the side. The thing is set up to imitate a Christmas tree, complete with Christmas ornaments and sugar canes and garlands and Christmas lights. There’s even a huge star on top and Steve can’t help but laugh, because it’s funny and also awfully tasteless at the same time. 

The Christmas music seems to be omnipresent, it follows them all the way from the motor pool to the living quarters, along the maze of corridors, even into their room and it’s bordering on becoming annoying. Bing Crosby crooning about _dreaming of a White Christmas_ and _Santa Claus coming to town_ couldn’t feel more out of place on the moon. It also amplifies the slighty dissociative feeling from the severe lack of sleep that gets harder and harder to ignore.

Steve drops his stuff unceremoniously on the floor inside their room, yawns heartily and wants nothing more than to collapse headlong onto his cot and sleep for the next day or ten. He probably would have, if Freddie hadn’t clapped him on the back, hard, and said “Come on, chew time! Let’s see if Santa has put something nice on the menu for us!”

By the time they’re sitting in the mess hall and Steve has downed his first cup of hot black coffee, he feels a lot better and is actually grateful that Freddie dragged him here. He still doesn’t have much of an appetite, but he is hungry and knows he needs the fuel. So he digs into the undefinable mush on his tray that’s supposed to be eggs and listens with half an ear to Freddie and Cole exchanging Christmas anecdotes from home. He doesn’t have anything to contribute to this particular conversation, so he keeps his head down and hopes that no one will try and ask him to share any stories of his own. It makes him think though, and Steve makes a mental note to find some time later to send an email with Christmas greetings to his Dad and Aunt Deb and Mary.

The noise level in the mess hall is thankfully loud enough to drown out most of the Christmas music, and maybe it’s because he just thought of his family that the words don’t register immediately. But when he picks them up over the noise he strains his ears and tries to tune out the babble of voices and the clinking of cutlery—it’s still Bing Crosby playing, and Steve recognizes the song easily.

_Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say Merry Christmas to you_

Just two words, long forgotten, that still sound so very familiar, that still hold meaning and that hit him like a sucker punch. Words that conjure images that have been hidden in the back of his mind for years, and all of a sudden, in the middle of a mess hall in freaking Afghanistan, he remembers. 

He remembers his childhood home, the fake Christmas tree that his parents always placed next to the stairs and the Christmas cookies that his Mom used to bake. He remembers their traditional family picnic on the beach, his Dad and Uncle Joe wearing Santa hats, his Mom handing out drinks and sun screen and using every free minute to capture the day on her video camera. He remembers standing in the shallow surf with Mary and a bunch of other kids, watching Santa passing by in his canoe that might or might not haven been pulled by dolphins. He remembers long evenings with his family and their friends— _ohana_ —with music and a bonfire and—

“Hey, McGarrett, you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” An elbow to his side and Freddie’s booming voice next to him bring him back to reality harshly. He looks from Freddie to Cole and back, realizing that they must have talked to him, that he had zoned out for a moment.

“I’m fine,” Steve says, more gruffly than necessary, and rubs his hands over his face, trying to focus. A part of him doesn’t want to let go of the memories just yet. They were good times, he’d had a good childhood, he’d been a lucky kid—until the day it all went to hell. 

“Nah, man, he looks like he’s been dreaming of his sweetheart,” Cole teases and winks at him, but Steve is not in the mood for this kind of banter.

“Been thinking of home,” he says and hates how much a stupid Christmas song can get under his skin. He does notice Freddie looking at him with raised eyebrows, but chooses to ignore him.

“I totally get that, man,” Cole says, an apologetic tone in his voice. “Hard time to be away from home.”

 _Haven’t been home in 10 years_ , Steve wants to tell him, yell at him, because all of a sudden he’s sad, and he’s angry. The memories have taken him completely by surprise, have opened old wounds that he hadn’t known were still hurting. They have made him acutely aware of what he has lost, of what it is that makes it so hard for all the other guys and girls to be away from home at Christmas. And the thing is: they’re gonna miss one year and be back home for the next season. Steve isn’t so sure he even has a home anymore.

“I’m gonna hit the sack, I’m exhausted,” he says instead and pushes his chair back abruptly. He knows it’s not Cole’s fault, and he shouldn’t behave like an ass, but it hurts and he doesn’t know how to deal right now.

“Alright, see you later,” Freddie says, “sweet dreams.” Steve can clearly see the concern on his face now. He is grateful that Freddie knows him so well and doesn’t ask.

“Yeah,” Cole says, “Merry Christmas, McGarrett!” If he’s taken aback by Steve’s reactions, he doesn’t show it.

“Mele Kalikimaka,” Steve says as he grabs his tray and stands. He doesn’t wait for an answer and all but flees the mess hall.


	2. Danny

**New Jersey, 2015**

It’s the week before Christmas and New Jersey is as gloomy and gray as it is expected to be this time of year. Even though it’s already late in the morning, it’s still not really light and Danny knows it won’t be getting any better all day. He hasn’t seen a ray of sunshine ever since his plane touched down in Newark four days ago. 

It’s snowing, and Danny is stuck in traffic on the New Jersey turnpike. He had spent the previous day visiting his sister Bridget and her family, including spending the night and Bridget cooking him a delicious breakfast this morning. Now though, he’s drumming his thumbs on the steering wheel of his rental car impatiently. He’s been driving over an hour already and should be back at his parents’ place by now. Instead he has managed hardly half the way. 

Danny watches the big, wet snow flakes fall to the ground where they dissolve immediately, turning into huge heaps of gray slush on the road. He’s so bored that he briefly considers calling Steve, but it’s the middle of the night at home and while the sole reason of his call would be to annoy Steve, waking him up for nothing would be— 

Wait a minute! At home? Since when does he call Hawaii _at home_?

Danny shakes his head at himself and takes a deliberate look outside the windows. There. It’s New Jersey. This is his home! He has to admit it doesn’t look very appealing today.

For lack of anything better to do, he switches the radio on, expecting Christmas songs and he’s not disappointed. He starts humming along absentmindedly, and maybe it’s because he’s just thought of Hawaii and of Steve that it takes him a minute to recognize the song—it’s Bing Crosby playing.

 _That's the island greeting that we send to you from the land where palm trees sway_  
_Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright_  
_The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night_

His mind immediately supplies the proper images: The Christmas lights on the palm trees in Steve’s backyard that seem so out of place and that still make the place very cozy at night. The not-so-small installation of Santa in a canoe pulled by dolphins that Steve puts up on his beach each year especially for Grace. Last year’s Christmas Eve in his living room, with the whole Five-0 ohana and a stolen Christmas tree. The look of disappointment he’d caught in Steve’s eyes when he’d realized Danny would be missing their traditional Christmas party this year while in New Jersey.

Danny closes his eyes and lets his forehead thunk onto the steering wheel in exasperation. What the hell is the matter with him?

It’s Christmas! He’s in New Jersey! He’ll be back in Hawaii in time to celebrate Christmas Day with his kids—that’s as good as it can get!

Only obviously, for some reason, it isn’t.

For years, the holiday season had been the hardest time to be away from home. For years, the holidays had amplified the feeling of missing out, missing home, missing his family. Never had the distance between New Jersey and Hawaii felt larger than at Christmas, never had the differences been more obvious: Palm trees instead of Christmas trees, the beach instead of snow, surf boards instead of sleds. Bright sunshine instead of gloomy weather. Cold beer with Steve instead of hot chocolate with Grace.

And when the hell have his priorities changed without him noticing? Because he could really do with that beer right now, and if someone made him choose where he’d rather be, it would definitely be Steve’s backyard and not the jammed up turnpike. He imagines Grace and Charlie playing in the surf, Steve wearing a stupid Santa hat and his goofy smile—

Someone honks and Danny jerks his head back up, becoming aware that traffic has moved on and he hurries to catch up. It feels like pulling himself out of a sunshine-filled dream back into the harsh, gray reality.

For years, he suddenly realizes, he had chased the memory of Christmas as he had known it all his life. As it once had been and as he thought it always should be. He had tried to keep the familiar traditions alive, to stick to how things had always been done in his family and he had stubbornly tried to recreate the things he had lost. 

And all the while he hadn’t noticed that he had built something completely new, that together with Steve, with Five-0, they have created their own traditions. They are different, they are a bit crazy, but they are their own way of celebrating Christmas. They are a mix of what everyone brought with them and—

Oh! 

Oh _no!_

It suddenly dawns on him why Steve had been so disappointed by Danny’s travel plans and it makes his heart hurt badly. Because Steve hadn’t had a proper Christmas probably since he’d been sixteen. As far as Danny knew, Steve had hardly ever been home to Hawaii in all those years before they’d met, and he had certainly not been home to celebrate Christmas with his cold-hearted father. 

So these new Christmas traditions they share, they are the _only_ Christmas traditions Steve has. And Danny had turned his back on him! How could he be so selfish and not see this? He had left Steve alone just to be in New Jersey, he had abandoned him like he doesn’t care and the guilty feeling that is creeping up settles in his stomach uncomfortably.

Steve always does everything to make life in Hawaii as pleasant and compelling as possible for Danny—and he always went out of his way to make Christmas in Hawaii more bearable. He even stole a Christmas tree for him! Danny smiles at the memory. As much as he had berated Steve for it, he had actually been flattered by Steve’s determination to get him a decent Christmas tree. And instead of showing gratitude, he’d behaved like an ass. Talk about cold-hearted.

Traffic is rolling slowly now, no longer the annoying stop and go, and when he catches the sign for the exit to Newark airport, it’s a knee-jerk reaction. It’s very unlike him to do something rash like this, but he sets the indicator and changes onto the far right lane. He’s sure he can handle his parents’ disappointment more easily than Steve’s and it feels like the right thing to do. Just imagining Steve’s surprise when he will show up to the party is almost worth it.

Danny calls his parents’ house once he’s en route to the airport, and his Ma picks up after the second ring.

“Danny, hi,” she says, surprise clearly audible over the phone. “I was expecting you back home by now. Are you still with Bridget?” 

“Hi, Ma,” Danny says, amazed as always by her unerring sixth sense. How could she possibly know something was up? 

“No, I’m on my way back already. Bridge told me to say hi to you, by the way. The kids, too.” 

“Thank you, sweetheart. So when do you think you’ll be back?”

“That’s why I’m calling, there’s a change of plans,” he says, stifling a groan when he hits the end of another traffic jam. He doesn’t want to imagine how crowded the airport will be. “I, uh, I won’t stay until Christmas, I’m headed for the airport right now—“

“What? Why? What is the matter?” his Ma interrupts him, her voice a familiar mix of curiosity and concern. “Is it the kids? Is it work?

“Ma, just let me finish, please!” Danny rolls his eyes at her impatience even though he knows he’s exactly the same as her. “Nothing’s the matter. The kids are fine and work is fine. I just— I gotta— uh—“

Suddenly, for a short moment, he’s not so sure anymore if this is a good idea. He doesn’t quite know how to explain his reasoning, and if he can’t explain it to his mother, what in the world will he tell Steve when he gets there?

“Come on, just tell me,” his Ma says, “you know you can tell me anything.“ As if he still was a kid. Or a lovesick teenager. 

He’s not lovesick, of course he isn’t, but right now he feels a little awkward. Danny rubs a hand over his face as if that can help in his attempt to sort out his thoughts; then he takes a deep breath and hopes his Ma won’t take this the wrong way. 

“Okay. Okay, please don’t be mad,” he says cautiously. “I’m flying _home_ because I have realized that my life is in Hawaii now. Most of it. The kids are there of course, but I have a family there, too, you know. And I might need to apologize to Steve. Or something like that.”

“But you planned to go back on Christmas Eve, can’t it wait until then?”

“No, Ma, it can’t and I’m sorry—“

“Wait! Danny!” She interrupts him again. “Are you saying _Steve_ is your family? Are you implying—“

“No! Ma!” Danny says quickly, because this is headed into a dangerous direction. It's forbidden territory, something he hasn’t allowed himself to consider, something he hadn't dared think about. Yet. “You know what, now is not the right time. I’ll explain it, I promise.”

“I cannot say I’m not disappointed, Danny,” his Ma says and he hates to do let her down like this. But because she is an amazing mother, she continues, “but you gotta do what you gotta do. I want every detail, you hear me?”

“Thank you!” Danny says with a huge grin and he hopes that she can hear the relief in his voice. 

“Take care, honey. I love you. Have a safe flight and say hi to everyone, will you? Give Grace and Charlie a hug and a kiss from Grandma, please.”

“I will, I promise. I love you, too.”

“Merry Christmas, Danny.”

“Mele Kalikimaka, Ma.”


	3. Grace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A year late, I have now finished this fic, yay! :)

**Chicago, 2019**

It’s a day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday. Worst day of the year if you work in retail they say. But working at the small diner in the local mall, vis-a-vis campus, is not any better. Maybe it’s even worse.

The place is crowded with tired and annoyed shoppers, and the mood is aggressive when it should still be festive after the holiday. Customers are impatient and tips are low and if it takes a few minutes too long to deliver an order, people become rude and there’ll be no tip at all. 

But the worst thing of it all is that Grace is here, in Chicago, on her own, when rightfully she should be back home, in Hawaii, with her family. 

Of course she could have gone home for the holiday, if she’d really wanted to. But she hadn’t wanted to waste neither time nor money for the lengthy flights. She’ll be going home for Christmas, it had somehow seemed more important to her—and it had seemed like a reasonable, perfectly adult decision. Or so she’d told herself.

Grace knows that her parents—any one of them, since she has more than average—would have helped her out with money for the flights if she’d asked them to. But she hadn’t wanted to worry them, she hadn’t wanted them to think that she couldn’t manage on her own. Because damn it, she _can._

She’d known that going to college on the mainland would be different. Of course she had known that it would be hard at times, that it could be lonely at first. And it’s not that she doesn’t like it in Chicago, it’s just not the same as home. It’s not that she hasn’t made any friends or that she regrets her decision coming here, she just hadn’t known that missing home could hurt _so. damned. much._

So she hasn’t really told anyone how she feels, how homesick she gets sometimes. Her dad had told her once how hard it had been on him when they’d first moved to Hawaii. How all he’d been able to focus on were the differences, all the things he’d taken for granted back home in New Jersey and he didn’t get to have anymore in Hawaii. Grace hadn’t understood all of it at the time, but she does, now.

When she’d met up for dinner yesterday with the few people she knew who hadn’t gone home for the holiday either, and they’d eaten mediocre, lukewarm takeout, all she could think of was Kamekona’s garlic shrimp and all his fancy foods that he always delivered for the huge buffet they’d have in Steve’s backyard on Thanksgiving.

When they sat around after dinner, in the not exactly festive or cozy dorm house common room, making awkward conversation because they all had rather been somewhere else, her thoughts had drifted back home. She’d wondered who’d won their traditional football match this year, if Nahele had been there and how Will’s exam had gone, how much she missed hanging out with her boys, and damn it, she had been nearly crying when she left.

When she’d walked back to her own dorm, alone, through the freezing cold night, she’d desperately wished for warm sunshine and the beach. She’d wished she’d spent the afternoon with Danno and Uncle Steve and the Five-0 ohana, she’d wished she’d be returning home to mom and Charlie right now—instead of an empty dorm room. She had debated with herself if a phone call home would make her feel better or worse, and she’d ended up flipping through the camera roll on her phone until she fell asleep.

So today, Grace still feels blue and miserable and she’s not in the best headspace to deal with the impatient, impolite Black Friday crowds. It’s only early afternoon, but it feels like she’d been working for a whole weekend straight already. With every passing minute of her shift it seems to be getting harder to keep a smile on her face, as fake as it might have been to begin with.

So after the umpteenth time handing out menus _(“Finally, took you long enough!”)_ , taking orders _(“Are you sure there are no nuts in the apple pie? I’m allergic. I can’t eat nuts. There better be no nuts in the pie!”)_ and serving food and drinks _(“Why is there no cinnamon sprinkle on the whipped cream? I told you I wanted cinnamon not cocoa, it’s really not that hard!”)_ , Grace retreats behind the counter under the pretense of refilling the coffee machine—but mostly just to catch her breath for a minute. 

It’s when she notices the music for the first time today. 

Usually, the diner has the local radio station playing on low in the background, and some days it gets really annoying to hear the same songs and the same ads and the same lame jokes over and over again, so she has learned to tune it out like white noise. 

But today, it’s not the radio station playing. Someone has put on Christmas music and while she could have expected it, she’s pleasantly surprised. She’s still as enchanted with Christmas as she was as a little girl, and she fully blames it on her dad—who is a tough as nails cop, but who also is a hopeless romantic when it comes to family things.

The music a welcomed distraction and with somewhat revived energy Grace takes the coffee pot and goes on a round of her tables to offer refills. She even manages to keep an ear on the music now, despite the chattering and bustling of the diner, but when the next song comes on, it makes her freeze mid-way reaching out for a customer’s coffee cup—

_Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day_

Bing Crosby’s well known voice manages to elicit the first genuine smile out of her today. Grace can feel it pulling at the corners of her mouth—but then she needs to close her eyes for a moment, needs to take a deep breath, because there are tears springing to her eyes and she can’t help it. 

“Miss?” says a woman’s voice from her left.

“Miss, are you alright?” says a man’s voice from the right. 

They can’t possibly guess that Grace is actually crying happy tears, because the familiar words and the familiar tune of the song wash over her, offering instant comfort, taking the edge off of her homesickness. In her mind she can suddenly see the beach, a vivid image of a figurine of Santa in a canoe placed close to the shore and Christmas lights hung in the palm trees and a soothing warmth spreads through her veins. Soon. She’ll be going home soon.

Suddenly, she feels giddy, hit with a sense of excited anticipation, because somehow it feels _real_ now. It’s not long until Christmas anymore, it’s not long until she will see her family and her friends, until she can breath in the warm, salt-filled Hawaiian air.

When Grace finally opens her eyes, she meets the slightly concerned gaze of her customer, a kind looking man who she had offered coffee to before the song had taken her mind back home for a moment.

“I’m fine,” she says, smiling and blinking the tears away at the same time, busying herself with refilling his coffee cup. “I’m sorry, sir.”

“Are you sure, dear?” asks the woman from the other side of the table, probably the man’s wife, and she doesn’t look convinced by Grace’s words. She discreetly offers a napkin when Grace dabs at her wet cheeks with her free hand and she takes it gratefully to wipe the tears away.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Grace says, a little embarrassed, but she can’t quite stop smiling now. “Yes. Yes, I’m good. I just— I was thinking of my family. I’m looking forward to seeing them at Christmas.”

“It’s not long now,” the woman assures her in a knowing, motherly tone, holding her coffee cup so Grace can refill it, too.

“Yes, I know. Thank you.” Grace offers a warm smile to both of them, hoping to convey her gratitude for the couple’s patience and understanding. “Mele Kalikimaka,” she says, even though it might be a little early still for wishing someone Merry Christmas.


	4. Epilogue

**Honolulu, 2019**

It’s late afternoon, it’s Christmas Eve, and the traditional Five-0 Christmas party is already in full swing. On the small beach behind Steve’s house, Grace is sitting in one of the adirondack chairs out by the water, with Nahele on her right in the other chair and Will sitting on the ground by their feet, playing with Eddie.

Grace still can’t quite believe it, they had all been there at the airport earlier, to welcome her home: Mom and Charlie, Danno and Uncle Steve, Will and the Grovers, Nahele and two of her friends from school, even Junior and Tani had come to the airport for her. And Eddie of course, who had run in circles around her with his tail wagging, all the way from the arrival’s gate to the parking lot. She might not have stopped smiling the whole way from the airport to Steve’s house.

First thing she did when they had arrived was shedding the warm clothes she’d worn and swapping them for a light dress. Second, she had raided the buffet Kamekona had already set up, not so much out of hunger, but much more because she’d been craving his food ever since Thanksgiving and she’d savoured every bite.

Now that she has eaten her fill and she’s a little worn out from travelling, Grace leans her head back and closes her eyes for a moment, enjoying the feeling of being home and soaking it all up: the gentle breeze from the ocean, the last warm rays of the day’s sunshine, the smell of the BBQ, the familiar chattering of her friends. Even though she hadn’t really thought anything would have changed in the last few months, she’s immensely relieved that everything still feels the way it always had. The way she’d been looking forward to so much—

She opens her eyes when someone nudges her knee, and Will points over towards the house where Flippa has unpacked his ukulele and _gosh!_ , what an unexpected treat! Grace loves his music so much, it’s lighthearted and soft, yet full of emotion and no one ever guesses Flippa is so talented.

Flippa strums out a few chords and when he starts singing, Grace has to bite her cheek to keep herself from laughing out loud—it’s _Mele Kalikimaka_. Of course it is.

In a flash of sudden intuition she looks towards the beach, where the waves are rolling in lazily, and she finds the figurine of Santa and his dolphin-pulled canoe exactly where she expects it to be. Just like in her memories. She knows Steve had bought it for her all those years ago, and the thought that he still puts it up every year makes her all warm and fuzzy.

Grace looks back towards the house, and at the far end of their little crowd, close to the lanai, she spots her Dad and Uncle Steve. They both seem to be in a happy and relaxed mood today, Steve has his arm around Danno’s shoulder and Danno’s arm is around Steve’s waist, thumb hooked in one of Steve’s belt loops. They’re usually not openly affectionate with each other in public like that, but it seems they feel comfortable enough here, among their family. 

As she watches them, Steve says something into Danno’s ear and he laughs in response. When she looks at how happy and at home her dad is here, right now, it’s hard to imagine that he had ever struggled as much as she does with feeling homesick. With a sudden clarity Grace realises that Steve is a huge part, if not the one reason why her father is able to call Hawaii home now. 

She couldn’t be more happy they have found each other, they’re a perfect match. And she hopes she will find the same kind of belonging, too, someday, somewhere, with someone. 

As if he had read her thoughts, Will choses this exact moment to scoot closer and hook his arm over her knee, and Grace reaches out to take his hand and then she grabs Nahele’s hand, too, for good measure and squeezes them both tightly.

Because she knows that this place and this family has always and will always be home. No matter how far away life might take her, she will always be loved here.

—  
_  
Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day  
That's the island greeting that we send to you from the land where palm trees sway  
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright  
The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night  
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say Merry Christmas to you  
_  
—

Steve is just checking on the grill—and Lou mastering it—when he hears the first chords of music from the yard. When he looks over, he finds Flippa strumming on his ukulele, and almost everyone has gathered around him already, waiting expectantly for his performance.

“Catch you later,” Steve says to Lou, letting him tend to the grill, and he leaves the lanai to go find Danny. He doesn’t have to search for long, Danny is standing only a few feet away on the lawn and Steve walks over. Without thinking about it, he slings an arm around Danny’s shoulders, pulling him in a little, and he sighs happily when Danny’s arm comes around his waist, kind of automatically. The way it’s supposed to be. Even after so many years together, first as friends and then as lovers, Steve is still amazed that he gets to have this and he’s content to just enjoy the moment, but—

As much as he appreciates Flippa’s music, and he really does, and as much as he appreciates Flippa offering to play his very nice music at their Christmas party—he could have done without this very song.

It’s _Mele Kalikimaka_ , and it still brings back memories of that one Christmas Day in Afghanistan so many years ago. Of all the Christmasses he spent alone in some ungodly parts of the world in the years that followed. Somehow the song is still linked with loss and loneliness and sacrifices in his mind instead of the happy feelings it was meant to convey.

Looking around him now, and especially with Danny warm and solid at his side, Steve has to admit that he has come a long way since then. For all the wild turns his life has taken, for all the losses he’s suffered, for all the hardships he’s had to endure, he also has been richly gifted: with a family of his own, a family he’d never thought he’d have. A family that comes with the whole package: responsibilities and traditions, compromises and unconditional acceptance. Plus an ohana full of crazy, wonderful, brave and loyal friends.

“You know, I really used to hate this song,” he whispers into Danny’s ear, somehow feeling the need to share his thoughts. Danny just laughs it off, so Steve adds, “it always reminded me of the things I had lost and couldn’t have anymore.” He’s not sure why, but he wants Danny to understand. But he shouldn’t have worried—

“Well, let me tell you one thing,” Danny is looking at him now, and he’s smiling but his tone of voice is unexpectedly serious. “I am very fond of this song. Without this song, we wouldn’t be where we are now. If this song hadn’t played on the radio in New Jersey five years ago, I would never have changed my Christmas plans and hopped on that flight back to Oahu two days early—“

“Really?” Steve says and he’s got to let that piece of information sink in for a moment—isn’t it funny how one song can hold such vastly different meanings for two people?

“You never told me that,” he says, his heart suddenly beating a little faster and he doesn’t know how it is possible but there are moments like this one, where he falls in love with Danny all over again, a tiny bit more every time it happens.

“I guess I never did,” Danny admits, turning a little so he faces Steve, “but it’s true. And I’m grateful for it every time I hear that song.”

“Yeah, me too,” Steve says, thinking that he might have a new favourite Christmas song all of a sudden. He wraps both his arms around Danny’s shoulders and leans down to press a kiss on Danny’s lips, not at all caring that they are surrounded by people. He can feel the smile on Danny’s lips and then Danny is kissing him back, slow and tender and full of affection. It doesn’t last long though, because the song ends and people start applauding and Danny pulls back—

“Happy anniversary, babe,” Danny says then and wraps his arms around Steve and hugs him tightly.

“Mele Kalikimaka, Danny.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! ♥
> 
> I'm also on tumblr: [stephmcx](http://stephmcx.tumblr.com).  
> Come say hi, if you like!


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